The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), said he will testify before the Justice Ayo Salami-led Presidential panel if he is summoned.
He said this during an interview on Arise TV on Wednesday which was monitored by our correspondent.
Malami was reacting to a letter by the suspended acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, calling on Salami to summon the AGF.
The AGF said he had nothing to hide and would not hesitate to give the Salami-led panel his full cooperation if need be.
Malami said, “So, if indeed the Ayo Salami panel invites Abubakar Malami as a person or the AGF in the person of Abubakar Malami for any testimony, for any clarification, for examination or cross-examination for that matter, Abubakar Malami will gladly within the spirit and context of the rule of law be there to testify, be there to be cross-examined.
“Our position as a government is to be submissive to the rule of law and the rule of law component of it requires that when we are called upon to clarify issues, when we are called upon to be cross-examined, Abubakar Malami will be there and will gladly cooperate with the inquiry institution and that indeed is an attribute of the government that translated to the victory we are seeing today arising from P&ID.”
Responding to questions on Nigeria’s victory over Process and Industrial Development (P&ID), the AGF said he could not rule out negotiations between the Federal Government and the firm.
Malami, who said negotiations were part of the legal process, however, added that government would be guided by the general interest of Nigerians since it had been able to establish that the P&ID contract was obtained through fraudulent means.
He said, “The settlement is indeed an attribute of arbitral and judicial proceedings so you cannot rule out the possibility. But then, where fraud, corruption, material misrepresentation compromises processes and procedures are an issue, I wonder at what point you can now submit to the settlement arrangement taking into consideration what responsibility we have as a nation of sustaining and upholding the public interest.
“So, in as much as I cannot rule out the possibility of the settlement being a natural attribute of arbitral and indeed judicial proceeding, the fact remains that where fraud, corruption, criminality, criminal conspiracy, material misrepresentation are concerned, it is indeed a tall order.”
